CDIAC’s Computer Systems continues to search for ways to improve our
operation and increase efficiency. Over the past few years, we have
achieved great success by making our products available via our Web
site and FTP server. Electronic distribution not only cuts publication
and distribution costs but also allows us to deliver more timely
information to a rapidly-expanding audience. The response to easily
accessible electronic publications and data has been outstanding. This
response by our user community is exactly what we hoped to achieve.
However, to keep pace with the proliferation of data and increasing
global interest in those data, we must continue to anticipate the
impact of emerging information technologies and position ourselves to
apply those technologies to meet the needs of our audience.

The growth in
electronic distribution, projections for continued growth in this
area, the trend to larger data sets, and the resulting need to
interactively format and extract data subsets once again established a
clear need for improved tools to accomplish these tasks. Previously,
we undertook wholesale hardware upgrades by implementing a new
4-processor Sun® Enterprise 450 server, doubling our RAID (redundant
array of independent disks) storage capacity, and implementing an
automated digital linear tape (DLT) storage library. We completed
these infrastructure improvements in FY 2000 by upgrading our
communications network. This upgrade moved us from fixed transmission
rates to a fiber-based, switched system. This upgrade resulted in a
tenfold increase of our network throughput and much more efficient
routing of local network traffic.

5.1.2 New Metadata
Standard

Having successfully
completed upgrades to our central server hardware, we turned our
attention to improving our data/software infrastructure. There are
many new, rapidly developing information management tools designed to
help users accurately locate pertinent data while eliminating
extraneous information. These tools, typically XML (eXtensible Markup
Language) -based, require complete and accurate metadata to be useful.
To take full advantage of these tools at CDIAC, we created and
implemented a new metadata standard. While being legible and readily
understandable by humans, our new standard is compliant with the
Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC) metadata content standard and
will work well with evolving XML-based tools. We inventoried and
reviewed our existing metadata holdings and then set about the tedious
process of expanding the metadata associated with each of our
products. This process ensured that current metadata records were
comprehensive, complete, and in accordance with the new standard. This
process was successfully completed, with new metadata (.met) files
created for each CDIAC product.

5.1.3 New Analysis
Software

We also purchased and
installed SAS/Insight software on our central server. SAS/Insight
compliments the other components of the SAS System at CDIAC by
providing an interactive tool for exploring and analyzing data. It
allows CDIAC staff to quickly examine univariate distributions,
visualize multivariate data, and evaluate models through an extensive
suite of statistical techniques and graphical representations. These
preliminary analyses serve as a discovery tool to guide staff in the
application of statistical analysis methodologies, which are part of
CDIAC’s extensive quality assurance process.

5.1.4 Desktop
Development/Analysis Platform

Finally, we evaluated
several alternatives for replacing our aged desktop hardware. After
considerable testing, we arrived at a cost-effective combination that
provides tremendous flexibility. The winning combination consists of
the Linux operating system, Intel/AMD-based hardware®, VMware®, and
Windows 2000®. VMware® is a thin software layer that sits between
the hardware architecture and the operating system, creating a virtual
machine and managing all hardware resources. This software allows us
to run any version of Microsoft Windows®, from Windows 3.1® to
Windows 2000®, as a guest operating system. This configuration
affords us the features and security of a UNIX®-based operating
system while allowing us to utilize Windows-based tools and test our
products in various Windows® environments. One attractive feature
Vmware® provides is the ability to move in and out of applications
across the different operating systems without rebooting. Having
completed our testing, and based on the positive results, we will
begin migrating to this desktop configuration in FY 2001.

At the request of DOE
program management, we configured a Sun workstation, hardware and
software, to function as the server for the Carbon Sequestration Web
site. This Web server is still under our direction, and has received
over 50,000 visits from countries around the world.

Our diligent
application of DOE and ORNL guidelines in preparation for the year
2000 prepared us well for the new millennium. We experienced no
computer system problems resulting from the millennium changeover.

We also spent a
considerable amount of time performing necessary routine functions in
support of the CDIAC Computing System Network. These tasks included
backing up nightly, upgrading/replacing disk drives, creating new file
systems, installing/upgrading application software and operating
system enhancements, restoring user-deleted files,
installing/replacing uninterruptible power supply (UPS), responding to
a wide variety of CDIAC staff calls for help, producing Web
statistics, making wholesale Web changes (e.g., area code), providing
Web design direction, and maintaining general Web development area.

Based on system
improvements implemented in FY 1999 and FY 2000, we are
well-positioned to take full advantage of evolving computing and
information management technologies. We have plans to implement
several new information management tools under development at ORNL. We
are excited by what these tools will offer our user community and look
forward to a productive year in FY 2001.

We will replace our
existing desktop systems by implementing the new desktop
development/analysis platform described in 5.1. This combination
consists of the Linux operating system®, Intel/AMD-based hardware®,
VMware®, and Windows 2000®.

We will work with DAAC
staff to develop a CDIAC application of their ORNL Metadata Editor (OME).
The OME will expedite metadata generation by providing a dynamic
interface for the input and modification of metadata. The OME will
automatically generate .met files based on the CDIAC standard and .xml
files based on the XML standard. These metadata files will make CDIAC
data much more visible through internet indexing services and will
improve the accuracy of those services.

We will implement a
CDIAC version of Mercury. Mercury, developed at ORNL, is a data search
and retrieval system that utilizes metadata to perform very accurate
searches. Mercury will provide our users with sophisticated data
search tools, including browse trees and dynamic pick lists. In
addition to these tools, the CDIAC version of Mercury will provide
tools to perform spatial and temporal data searches. Mercury offers
but one example of the benefits to be derived from implementation of
CDIAC’s new metadata standard.